- This poem takes us back to the story of Hummingbird and Fly. Remember them?
- Hummingbird and Fly have to explain to the people that, yes, they found Old Buzzard, but they forgot to take him tobacco.
- There's no tobacco (duh, it's a drought), so Hummingbird and Fly have to fly all the way back down to the fourth world to ask their mother where to get some.
- She tells them to go ask Caterpillar. Geesh—this is starting to feel like a wild goose chase.
- Betonie continues the story about Descheeny and the green-eyed woman. Descheeny and the Mexican woman had a baby and gave her to Descheeny's daughters to raise.
- The daughters teach the baby to fear her mother.
- Many years later, the Mexican woman's daughter has a baby—Betonie.
- Descheeny arranges for the grandmother to take the baby. So that explains how he came to be raised by his grandma and learn all about the special ceremonies.
- Tayo sits and thinks about the ceremony Betonie has just performed on him. He can feel it working, straining to hold back all the bad dreams and icky feelings.
- Betonie explains that the ceremony isn't finished yet. He draws some stars in the dirt and tells Tayo to remember them.
- Betonie has had visions of the stars, the spotted cattle, a mountain, and a woman.
- Tayo tries to pay Betonie for the ceremony he did, but Betonie refuses. Tayo has a responsibility now not to let "them" stop him and finish off the world (XX.5).